Don't forget

to update your bookmarks! If you haven't done so, visit my new blog www.fickleknitter.com

Attention Please!

Roll out the red carpet and bring on the drink! I bought a domain of my very own. Please redirect all bookmarks and bloglines to www.fickleknitter.com

The blahs have receeded

I finished Clapotis! So much excitement so little time. *Next sentence is not for the faint of heart* I took scissors to a stitch I forgot to drop. I was too lazy and too impatient to drop back to my mistake. But in the end everything turned out just fine.



I received my yarn for the Rebecca Eyelet Wrap, and for the Flowerbasket shawl. You would think that would be enough to satiate my bountiful yarn-lust. It wasn't. So me and my new friend Clapotis took a trip to my LYS (with a quick stop to Trader Joes where we got trampled to death by granolaesque suburbanites). I was only there to pick up the latest Interweave Knits and some Addis to complete my set.

Suddenly amoungst the yarn I saw it. A beautiful lace shawl knit from Helen's Lace (Of Lornas Lace fame) in Tahoe. The laceweight colorway of my dreams. Did I mention the pattern came free with the yarn? Could I ask for anything more? My upper arms are much stronger now from winding the lace weight into a ball. Amazing that so many yards of yarn could fit into such small shape. And for my Dear Husband, the yarn is a meager $4.16 per hundred yards! A bargain at twice the price I say!



I am a lace woman now. The Rogues, Klaralunds, Eyelet Wraps, and unseemly unseemed officially unfinished items languishing in my house be damned.

A Week of Blah

Last weekend I decided to drop spindle enough "yarn" to make a kitty toy for our beloved cat.


The "yarn" knit up craptacularly. I knit it on US 5 needles, using bits from Wendys mouse pattern. I say bits, because I quit halfway through the pattern and kludged it all together with a single crochet edge. It's a design element.

It looks rather sheep-like, don't you think?

I bribed Geiger into posing by stuffing a treat in one of the openings I forgot to sew up. I'm thinking of felting the crap out of it to see what happens.

On the knitting front, I'm well on my way to being done section 3 of The Clap. I finished the sleeves on Rogue, and started the grafting process. I'm knitting the sleeves for Klaralund in tandem, making slow progress.

I have 2 projects in the pipeline. I've ordered yarn for the Eyelet Wrap in Rebecca 29, and for the Flowerbaskset shawl from Interweave Knits Fall 2004 issue. I won't lie. I'd love to make the Huntington Castle Pullover from that issue too. But I must show restraint and limit myself to only a mere 10 projects per unit time.

Winds of Change

I had a fruitful weekend of knitting. The Hubs and I saw Sideways on Saturday. What an incredible movie! It was directed by Alexander Payne who also directed Election, another great movie.

I brought up the movie because I took my knitting into the theater. And I worked on Klaralund in the complete and total dark while watching the movie, and suffered no casualties.
Speaking of Klaralund I have to say I love the #211 colorway of Noro Silk Garden. It reminds me of childhood cards I made for loved ones. You know the ones where you color block type patterns, then color the whole thing black and scrape off your message? It's a satisfying pattern and a lovely colorway.

I also made some progress on Rogue. The sleeves are completed! Next is the buttonband and the hem I've been avoiding. And sewing up the small dog sized holes I created with poorly thought out increasing.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

This is my first Typepad entry. I'll be copying to blogger until I get the template and archives set up the way I'd like. I expect it'll be quite a while before I move over entirely to Typepad, assuming I don't destroy my laptop in complete and utter frustration first.

**PS Blogger what's up with the lack of breaks between my paragraphs?

ARG

All Bloody Buggery Movable Type and no Play make Mishi go Crazy

I am working toward an advanced degree in the Physical Sciences. I have had multitudinous programming experience. I know what DLL Hell is. I can take shit apart and put it back together again. But all this bloody experience has helped me none with Movable Type. My kind and loving Husband suggested I use the Command Prompt window to ftp. I know he is an Assembly Language Zen Master. But my god, the Command Prompt?! I am sorry to say even after downloading the proper FTP Client Software I am still unable to transfer my archives to my new domain. I finally figured out the right directory (Dear Movable Type, please provide a sample directory with the Import help function) after visiting the Movable Type forums. I downloaded a Unix text editor, but it STILL seems I will have to edit. every. post. with. carriage. return. and. line. feed.. Until that time faithful readers, you can still read my ranting blatherings here on blogger.

**Edited to add the following:
Importing entries into blog 'FickleKnitterFiend'
Importing entries as author 'Michelle'
Importing entries from file '10122004.txt'
All data imported successfully! Make sure that you remove the files that you imported from the 'import' folder, so that if/when you run the import process again, those files will not be re-imported.
You would think that snippet would indicate the archival text file would *be* somewhere in Movable Type-land, right? It's not!

Brilliant

The Many Faces of Clapoti

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

You've been a trusted confidant to my husband these past two decades. You didn't judge. Not in the days of Flock of Seagulls hair, the awkward growing out stages, nor during the sensitive long hair days. For that we overlooked your asbestos wrapped interior, your suspicious heating element, and your propensity for grabbing single strands of hair and ripping them out one by one with your dilapidated motor. How I'll miss your odorific burnt hair smell, your unsafe electrical components, and 1980's technology. Rest In Peace one of the last vestiges of my Husbands bachelorhood. Rest in peace.

Parade of Distractions

The following Public Service Announcement is brought to you by the letters D,I,E,and sometimes T. I finally broke my dieting plateau. Only to celebrate by stuffing my face. I feel a little like Homer today. Did I mention the March birthday sweater is now a Summer-y Christmas sweater? I keep stealing swapping needles from project to project. First it was the March Christmas Sweater, then from the arms of Rogue. Now sadly it will be from The Clap to this I should make a scarlet P for promiscuous knitting. Only it would require the same damn needles I need for everything else. I haven't posted the new toys distractions I brought home from Stitches West. I'll try and make that up to you now. (Isn't the sock yarn from my Secret Pal gorgeous?!) My dog loves the smell of sheep in the morning. My Husband gets high marks for this years V-Day gift. Serenity Now.

It had to be Ewe

It's insidious. First the Ultra Hip get it, and spread it around. They make a big fuss over it. Do you have it? Did you catch it from someone? Then it filters down to the Less Hip. Through Ultra Hip and Less Hip interactions. Some people post PSAs on how the guilty pleasures start to interupt daily life, and the dangers of such. It's all consuming, bewitching, and beguiling. Being Criminally Unhip, it took a long time for me to contract it. But it is so powerful, I dropped everything to focus all my energy on beating it. *Cue Music* I have... The Clap.

And Dim Sum

It was a good day for business in Northern California last Friday. Domestigirl and I had Dim Sum to fuel us for Stitches West. As you can see, the food was quite tasty. When we got to the convention center we browsed a bit before both buying Swifts, and a few small notions. We decided to drop our first purchases off at the car. That's when the real fun began. Admittedly not the most flattering picture of me giving the soda machine the one finger salute. But it served a purpose. Directly after the machine ate my $2.oo (!), a Convention Employee came by and brought by two Diet Cokes for me and Kirsten. Those were good times. Kirsten insisted on taking a money shot. We paid a smooth $5 USD to learn to spin at the Serendipity Spinners booth. I felt a lot of emotions while there, and I have to say "Serendipity" was not one of them. Here's Kirsten with her first spin on the drop spindle. Does she look begrudging? Here's a superfluous shot of Rogue Sleeves. Still unfinished. I have a damn good reason for not being finished. But you'll have to wait until the next installment to satiate your burning burning curiousity.

My Secret Pal, Oh How I Love Thee

I got a wonderful package from my Knitty Secret Pal. I can't wait to knit with the beautiful yarn. My Pal says it's enough to make 2 socks. The plan is to do 2-toe-up-at-the-same-time socks. I love touching the yarn. By the way there was some candy included in this latest package. I'll let you infer it's current location :).

Secret Pal Valentines Day Gift 

Serendipity Spinners at Stitches West

Cookie knows her shit. She showed me how to spin with a homemade drop spindle and some pretty roving. For only $5 you get a lesson, a homemade spindle, and a bit of roving. I need another 2 hands and I'll be competent. Humble Beginnings.

I'm leaving on a jet plane

Domestigirl's comment was too good not to share: Domestic Girl said... I had that same problem with my M1's. I think I was knitting them wrong, but I ended up with big skylights in the armpits of Sherbet. So I did what any intelligent person would do. I cheated. Hell, I was carrying two friggin' pieces of yarn. So I increased by knitting each one separately. It made a very cute tulippy increase. Which doesn't, unfortunately, help you any. But in the process I spent a lot of time looking through my vogue knitting book and I *think* I was coming at the stitches from the wrong side... you have to pick it up from the back and then look reallyreallyreally carefully at how they 'knit' it. It looks weird to me so I'm sure that's not what I was doing. I'm now making one by Knittting 1 in the st normally, then another in the back of the same st. No holes! At least none the size of a small dog. I attempted this before, but I didn't learn it at the time because I was doing a bunch of stuff wrong. I'm telling you, I love Vogue Knitting, but I also love www.KnittingHelp.com. Both have this technique described. I can't wait for Stitches West! I'm making a mental list of what I want, which I'd include, but my Husband has access to this blog, and the ability to google for prices. Why would he need to know how much yarn costs? I say it's a Need to Know area of knowledge and it's just better for all of us if he's left in the dark. My bleary, just having one cup of coffee (Please excuse all typos and grammatical mistakes) eyes are telling me my archive list doesn't appear in the mozilla version of my blog. Anyone experience this and have any suggestions?

Dear Comedy Central

Dear Comedy Central, Thank you so much for showing Richard Pryor's stand up from the 70's. He is brilliantly vulgar, and completely hysterical. Extra kudos for not bleeping out the profanity. However, please remove the "Girls Gone Wild" commercials from your ad line up (Spike tv, this goes for you too). Those commericals put me in a rage, directed mainly to the male species. No, as a matter of fact I don't want to see some drunk, dumbass co-ed's breasts, or as you so eloquently put it "where babies feed." This is an indication to me that you in fact have never seen breasts (other than your worn and stained copy of "National Geographic"), and you have no ability to woo the better sex. Thanks! Fickle Q Public

Ten Hut

I'm still on schedule! A word of advice however, if you are really hungry, and it's lunch time, don't kludge your way through something you've never done before. I have to rip out my "grafting" of the hood cables to the hood. And I had about 2 inches of purl (only on one row, people!) where there should be knits, so I'll have to finagle my way out of that one too. But I did start the sleeves! And I'm still doing both sleeves at once. I need to find a new way to "make one" because my make ones look like cavernous holes. I pick up the horizontal strand running from the front and back stitches to make a new stitch, and voila, a hole as big as the Sun. KnotInMyThread asked where the Alice Starmore books were selling for $300. I looked at Amazon and found a few expensive selections, like Aran Knitting, Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting, Pacific Coast Highway, and In the Hebrides. Assuming you bought every single one from the cheapest vendor, you could have all four for a mere $840 USD (minus shipping). Can you believe that? You can see some examples of her work Here. According to this post on Knitty Coffeeshop, Ms. Starmore goes after people who violate her copyright. I'm curious why there hasn't been a reprint of all these books, as she doesn't stand to profit one cent from the current resale of her books. Interesting, no? I'm really looking forward to Stitches West next weekend. The marketplace has my name written all over it (or it will after I get there with my credit card). I'm actually hoping to pick up a drop spindle, some roving, and a quick demo. Like I need another hobby.